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Religious
Easter Short
Stories

Our Saviour.

Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ had been quietly living
for many years at His father's home in Nazareth when John
the Baptist began to preach and prepare the people for
His coming, as it had been foretold by an Angel before
His birth that he should do, and we are told that all the
land of Judea, and the people of Jerusalem, roused by his
preaching, went to be baptized by him in the river Jordan,
after confessing their sins.

John told them that One much greater than he was to come
after him, One whose shoes he was not worthy to unloose,
for he could only baptize them with water and exhort them
to repent of their sins while there was yet time, but He
who was to come after would baptize them with the Holy
Ghost. This he did till Jesus Himself came from Nazareth
to the Jordan, and desired John, the companion of His childhood,
to baptize Him also. John objected, saying that he himself
had need to be baptized of Jesus, and was not worthy to
perform the office for Him, but our gracious Saviour insisted
till John led Him into the river and baptized Him.

As they returned to the land
a very wonderful thing happened, for the heavens opened
above, and the Spirit of God, in the form of a dove,
descended, and alighted upon Jesus, whilst a voice was
heard saying "This is My beloved Son,
in whom I am well pleased."

Then John went on his way, preaching
more and more to the people, and telling every one who
would listen to him of the marvellous thing he had seen;
whilst Christ went away by Himself into a lonely place
called a wilderness, where, for forty days, and forty
nights, He was tempted by the devil in all manner of
ways, but finding that, by the help of God His Father,
Jesus was enabled to resist all temptation to sin, and
would worship and serve none but the true God, the devil
at length left Him, and "Angels
came and ministered unto Him."

From that time, Jesus being then
about thirty years of age, He began to preach, and exhort
to repentance as John had done before Him. One day as
He walked beside the sea of Galilee He saw two brothers
named Simon-Peter and Andrew, fishing by the shore. These
men He called to Him and bade them follow Him for He
would make them fishers of men, and they immediately
left their nets and followed Him. Presently, as they
walked along the shore, they saw two other fishermen
brothers—James and John, the sons
of Zebedee, in a boat with their father, mending the great,
brown nets with which they caught fish on the Syrian coasts,
and called them also, and they too left their nets and
their father and followed Him. They were the first four
of the twelve disciples whom Jesus by degrees gathered
about Him, and who were His companions and assistants in
His future work. With His disciples Christ travelled over
the whole land of Syria, now called the Holy Land, teaching
in the churches and preaching about the Kingdom of His
Father, and healing all manner of diseases and sicknesses
amongst the people, until the fame of His sayings and doings
spread every where, and the sick and suffering and diseased
were brought to Him from all quarters that He might heal
them. This He never refused to do, for His heart was so
overflowing with divine love and pity for mankind that
He could not see suffering or misery without healing it.

But so immense grew the multitude of people who began
to follow and press about Him, that He had no room to teach
or to preach, no opportunity to rest and talk quietly with
His disciples either night or day.

Seeing this He went up a mountain
side, and sat down, and His disciples came to Him, and
there He began to instruct the people by preaching to
them that most grand and beautiful sermon called the
Sermon on the Mount, which contains not only the lessons
taught by the series of blessings called "The
Beatitudes", at the commencement, but that prayer of prayers
known to every child as the "Lord's Prayer", because it
is the only one which Christ Himself taught word for word
with His own lips, and which has remained unaltered through
the nineteen hundred years which have gone by since He
lived on earth.

The people were very much astonished, not only at what
Christ preached to them, but because He spoke as if He
had direct authority for what He said, and this they could
not understand, because they had not forgotten that He
was the Son of Joseph the Carpenter of Nazareth.

When Jesus came down from the mountain side, great multitudes
followed Him, many of whom were sick and entreated Him
to heal them, and He not only did so, but performed many
yet greater miracles, such as making the blind to see and
the deaf to hear, and even restoring to life some that
were dead, always however, impressing on those about Him,
that it was not by His own power that He did these things,
but by faith in the Spirit of God His Father who moved
within Him.

After having sufficiently taught His disciples by quiet
talks, by speaking to them through parables and letting
them behold the miracles He Himself performed, until they
thoroughly believed in His Divine power, Christ called
the whole twelve around Him and gave them also the power
to perform miracles, to heal all manner of sickness and
disease, and then sent them forth to teach and preach in
all the cities of Israel. He laid upon them many injunctions
as to their conduct as they travelled, how they were to
give offence to no one, and to teach brotherly love and
the forgiveness of injuries between man and man as freely
as God had promised to forgive them.

Now and then, by twos and threes, some of the disciples
came back to Jesus to report to Him what they had done
and how they had been received, and how the fame of His
Name and teaching was spreading far and wide; and so it
happened that He was seldom without one or two of these
loved and trusted followers about Him as He journeyed,
sometimes stopping a few days in one place, sometimes crossing
the inland sea of Galilee, or going from city to city along
the coast in a boat or ship, but always doing good wherever
He went, preaching the Gospel of his Father, and winning
men, women, and children to follow Him.

Our Saviour had no comfortable home such as you have;
often and often He had nowhere to lay His head at night,
but weary and hungry after a long day's ministry, He would
stretch Himself on the ground wherever He might be at the
time, and sleep with the grass for His bed, and the starry
sky for His curtains.

All through His life, which He spent in loving service
towards men, our Saviour was specially kind and tender
to little children. One day He was so much inconvenienced
by the number of women with children in their arms pressing
upon Him, and entreating Him to bless their little ones,
that the disciples who were with Him rebuked the mothers;
but Jesus said to them "Suffer the little children to come
unto Me, and forbid them not, for of such is the Kingdom
of Heaven." Then He told those about Him that if only they
would receive His teaching of the Kingdom of God, and believe
in Him as simply and entirely as little children did, they
would inherit Eternal Life; and He would take the little
ones who clustered round His feet into His loving arms
and bless them.

On another occasion when His disciples were disputing
as to who should be the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven,
Jesus called a little child and set him in the midst of
them, and said whoever should be as meek and humble as
a little child should be the greatest; and whoever received
a little child with love and reverence in His Name, received
Him, and then He warned them to take heed and not despise
little children, and never to say or do anything that should
stain the innocency of their minds because "In Heaven their
angels do always behold the face of My Father." You, little
children who read this book, must remember that you are
just as much the care of your Good Shepherd now, as were
those privileged ones of old who actually saw Him face
to face, you must have faith in Him as they had, and believe
that though you cannot see Him now, He is still, and always
at your side, seeing all you do, hearing all you say, watching
over you, and, if you will only let Him, willing to guide
you safely to the Home in Heaven which He has gone to prepare
for those that love Him and try to do His will.

Feeling that He must go through Samaria, where He had
not yet preached, our Saviour travelled on alone and came
to a well which is called Jacob's well; being very weary
He seated Himself on the edge to rest. He was very thirsty
also, and on a woman coming up with a pitcher, He asked
her to draw Him some water: when He had drunk, He said
that if she knew who He was she would have asked Him for
water instead, for He could give her the Living Water of
Everlasting Life. Then He told her who He was, and she
went away to the city telling every one she met Whom she
had seen: some of the disciples then joined Him, and Jesus
remained two days in the city preaching so that many believed
in Him, and on the way back into Galilee He healed a nobleman's
son of a mortal sickness.

On returning to Bethany, Jesus
heard that Lazarus, the brother of Martha and Mary, two
sisters whom He loved, had died during His absence. Martha
met Him weeping, and told Him of their grief saying "Lord, if Thou hadst been
here, my brother had not died," for she knew Jesus would
have saved him. Jesus Himself wept to see their sorrow,
and going to the grave ordered the stone to be rolled away
and called Lazarus to come forth; Lazarus did so, and many
of those present believed in Jesus, but others went away
and told the High Priests and rulers, who were much troubled,
for they said "If we let this man go many will believe
in Him, and His adherents will become too powerful, and
will take our nation away from us."

The people of Bethany made a
supper for our Lord, and Lazarus and Martha and Mary
were there, together with the disciples; the Feast of
the Passover was near, and Jerusalem was crowded, and
the Chief Priests became still more uneasy for more and
more of the people every day believed in Christ, and
when they heard He was coming to Jerusalem went out to
meet Him with branches of palm, crying "Hosannah—Blessed
is He that cometh in the Name of the Lord," and the people
said "Behold, the world is gone after Him."

Jesus knew that the time was now come when He should depart
from this world and go to His Father, and told His disciples
so, saying they must not be troubled, for there were many
mansions in His Father's House and He was but going before
to prepare a place there for them. Then, being sorrowful
at heart, our Lord went up to a garden called Gethsemane,
and prayed to His Father that the souls of all mankind
might be saved and come at last to share the glory of Heaven.
Whilst He prayed, one of His disciples, who knew where
He was, wickedly betrayed Him to the Chief Priests, and
guided a band of soldiers to the garden, who bound Him
and led Him to the High Priest Caiaphas, who in turn sent
Him to be judged by Pontius Pilate the Governor.

Pilate, when he had heard of
what the people accused Jesus, knew that it was for envy
they were excited against Him, and washed his hands before
the multitude, saying he found no fault in Him, and he
would have nothing to do with shedding the blood of an
innocent man. "His blood be on us and our
children" cried the people and they roughly dragged Him
away, and beat Him, and made Him carry a heavy cross of
wood up Mount Calvary where they crucified Him, by nailing
Him to the cross. Now Mary the Mother of Jesus, and another
woman, also named Mary, and many of the disciples had followed
in the crowd; they could not save our Lord from His cruel
death, but when He was dead, they, together with a good
man called Joseph, were allowed to take His body down from
the cross, and lay it in a tomb belonging to Joseph, hewn
out of a rock in a garden, and they set a great stone upon
it. It had been foretold that Jesus should rise again on
the third day, so, fearing that His disciples should steal
away the body, and pretend that He had risen, the Chief
Priests set keepers to guard the tomb.

Mary, the Mother of Jesus, and the other Mary, went to
visit the tomb early in the morning of the third day, and
there was a great earthquake and the Angel of God descended
and rolled back the stone and sat upon it, so that the
keepers shook with afright, but the Angel said "Fear not,
for Jesus is not here, He is risen, as He, said." so the
two Marys ran to tell His disciples the great news, and
on their way met Jesus Himself, and they fell at His feet
and worshipped Him. He told them to go and tell His disciples
to go into Galilee and He would meet them there. This He
did, and for the last time He met them on a hill side in
Bethany, and again taught them, telling them still to go
out into the world and preach repentance and the remission
of sins in His Name. Then He lifted up His hands, and blessed
them, and even as He did so, He was suddenly carried up
into Heaven and hidden from their sight.